I wish I had a river I could skate away on...

But it don't snow here
It stays pretty green
I'm going to make a lot of money
Then I'm going to quit this crazy scene
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly


Morning commute.

The cold has broken... sort of. I will admit I was pretty chilly on my ride to work, but I was thrilled to be riding rather than driving, so I didn't mind much. I stopped on my way in to take a few shots of the river, which was frozen. Standing on the bridge with my camera and bike, I couldn't help but hear Joni Mitchell in my head. I stood there for a while taking in the cold, still morning before I hopped back on my bike and headed to work.





The evening ride is never quite the same. The roads are busy. I'm on high alert much of the time because I ride on heavily-trafficked roads and drivers aren't always paying attention. Tonight I was cut off twice by drivers who failed to notice me in all my seizure-inducing, blinking red and white lit glory. I can't help but take this personally; it is my life they're taking into their hands, after all. After the first near accident, I stopped on the bridge (different bridge from this morning) for some down time. And more photos. These aren't so great--I don't travel with a tripod. But the sky was beautiful, and the lights were reflecting off the river; I had to document it.

Despite ignorant drivers, today I fell in love with Philly again.

Skylines

This morning, as I was riding into work, I admired the pinks, purples, oranges, and blues swirling around the sun and the clouds in the sky. I love biking during the post-dawn confusion of colors; I love that my commute usually takes me past the river and the city skyline. I couldn't help myself--I stopped this morning (even though I was already running late) and stood on the Spring Garden bridge with my camera in the crisp, windy morning, mesmerized by the sky and the city.





I suppose this is cheating a bit. It's such an easy subject: the river, the skyline, the cars zooming by. But, it was 25 degrees out with a wind chill of who-knows-what, so I at least get points for bravery.

On the way home, I decided to stop in Powelton to check out the new park. It had been a fenced-in dirt lot for as long as I've lived in West Philly. It's now a series of paths up a hill, where a tiny tree is planted. There are some nice new trashcans, and a view of the skyline. And that's about it. Oh--there's very, very spongy sod, as well. I stepped off the path and sunk shoe-deep into it. Ew. Of course, spongy sod or not, it's a huge improvement over the big mound of dirt surrounded by chain-link I've been biking past for the last eight years.




I love that there's an anti-littering slogan on the trashcan, but there's a smokestack or... something... off to the right. What is that, anyhow?

I have such a love/hate relationship with Philadelphia. My opinion changes with the day, with my mood. It's dirty, people are rude. Drivers go out of their way to be jackasses, it seems. Every spring, the gazillions of ginko trees (who, to their credit, feed on pollution and clean the air) throughout the city drop their putrid fruit, and the whole city smells like vomit. But it's beautiful. The architechture is amazing in places. There are so many open spaces in the area. It's fairly bikable, dog-friendly, queer-friendly, and it's just big enough. Or maybe just small enough. At any rate I'm here for a while, and I love it enough to be ok with that.

Brief, but colorful. Sort of.

So, the rain's finally let up. It was cold and windy today, but I really didn't mind. I got up, threw on some thermals under my clothes, and hopped on my bike this morning. The commute felt great; I think my body really needed the exercise. Since I had all the warm cycling gear with me, I decided to spend my lunch break wander Fairmount with my camera. More exercise, photo opportunities... why not?

It turned out to be totally fun and relaxing, if a little chilly.



I've a bit of an obsession with repetition. And with bricks (and locks, fire hydrants, cracks, crumbling buildings... a lot of things, actually.) What really killed me as I was looking at these bricks was the cross faded in the distance. Don't ask me why, but for me, it makes the shot.



This one is just... well, you get it. Ornate, fancy iron rail, litter. And the colors are nice.



I stopped to shoot the crumbling wall and a fire hydrant (goldmine!) and ended up taking this shot of the latest incarnation of my trusty bike, Steamy. She has a new silver bell. Yay!